Some states now require refundable deposit be paid when purchasing certain classes of beverages with the aim and purpose that the empty container must be returned to a redemption operation to obtain the refund. In such manner, proper environmental disposition can be made of the used container leading to a lessening of the problem of environmental blight caused by random discard of the empty container.
The present invention provides crushing apparatus which conveniently can be embodied in a structure to be disposed at a redemption center and in appearance quite similar to the vending machines from which a user can purchase a beverage such as a can of soda. This structure or reverse vending machine would allow for a user to insert the used container onto a tray, the container would then be scanned and identified, e.g., reading the bar code and if acceptable for redemption, taken into the machine for destruction and refund of coin or script issued from the machine to the user.
The crushing apparatus of the invention includes the tray on which the container is received. The tray can be operated to move it rearwardly a distance to proximity with a scanner which reads the container bar code. If the container is acceptable, a wiper arm moves the container off the tray and into the housing of a crushing unit, the transfer being onto a lower or base platen member of the crushing unit. The empty tray is moved forwardly to its original position and a hydraulic ram carrying an upper crushing platen is stroked downwardly to crush the container. The crushing platen then can be stroked upwardly and the lower platen which is a slidably mounted member stroked to move it to a position remote from the housing. In moving to said remote position, the lower platen moves beneath a housing wall lower edge of closely conforming shape to that of the lower platen upper surface and there is thereby caused a wiping from the lower platen of the crushed container and any debris which falls to a collection chute disposed below the crushing unit housing. The collection chute is rotatably supported and can be positioned to discharge to a select one of a number of collection bins such as ones for glass, aluminum, PET, etc.